Shares of solar cell makers tumbled yesterday on fears of material shortages, sparked by reports that Chinese supplier LDK Solar Co (江西賽維) may delay deliveries.
LDK, a manufacturer of polycrystalline solar wafers based in Jiangxi Province, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Shares of Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), Taiwan's biggest manufacturer of solar cells, dipped by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$327.5.
Those of smaller rival E-ton Solar Tech Co (
To reassure investors, E-ton said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday that the company sourced a "slight" percentage of materials from LDK and therefore production would not be affected.
The Chinese supplier also assured E-ton that deliveries will be on time, the statement said.
E-ton sources most of its raw materials from Japanese supplier M.Setek, and is getting new supply from US-based Adema Technologies Inc, which E-ton acquired for US$153.7 million in cash and stock in June, company president Tsai Chin-yao (蔡進耀) said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Mosel, which signed a five-year contract with LDK at the end of last month, also said in a statement to the stock exchange that so far, the company has not received any notice from LDK regarding any change in their contract.
As Mosel sources from a variety of suppliers, the incident will not affect company operations and capacity expansion for next year, Mosel said in the statement.
Under the pact, LDK agreed to supply Mosel with a fixed quantity of wafers valued at US$190 million for the first three years of the pact, starting next year.
Mosel started mass production of solar cells in August and is set to start manufacturing on a second production line next year.
A new Taiwanese client of LDK is Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電), which on Wednesday inked a five-year deal with the company.
The deal specifies that the Chinese firm will supply wafers valued at US$224 million for the first three years of the agreement, beginning next year.
Shares of Solartech declined by 0.97 percent to NT$93.71 on the Emerging Stock Market (
Earlier this week, a former LDK financial staff member claimed the Chinese company's inventory reports were inconsistent in e-mail letters sent to LDK's management.
The allegation caused the company's shares to slump by 23.9 percent to US$51.65 on Wednesday. They declined by 6.49 percent to US$48.3 on Thursday.
LDK said in a statement on Thursday that after forming an internal committee to investigate the allegation and conduct an inventory, the management team found no material discrepancies with LDK's financial statements.
"We believe the allegation has no merit," the statement said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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